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Federal FOIA response is a mixed bag: 9 out of 99 federal agencies subject to FOIA earned top marks based on the Chief FOIA Officer Reports Summary but many others lagged. The Department of Veterans Affairs responded to simple requests in an average of 36 hours, meanwhile the State Department took a whopping 155 days on average. (POGO)

Pawlenty will lobby: Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota and Republican presidential candidate, is leaving his current post as a national co-chairman of Mitt Romney's campaign to become a Washington lobbyist. Pawlenty is joining the Financial Services Roundtable, representing banks and financial companies, as its new President and CEO. (New York Times)

Campaign Finance

Fundraising reports as campaign hits homestretch: The latest round of federal campaign finance filings that came in last night will shed some light on the financial state of the presidential campaigns and super PACs supporting them. These will be the last reports until late October, making them important indicators for the last full month of campaigning. (Politico)

Gary Johnson's best is probably not good enough: Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson had his best fundraising month ever in August pulling in more than $350,000 and receiving more than $70,000 in federal matching funds. By his own admission, Johnson and the super PACs backing him would need to raise and spend $50 million by election day to have any real shot at winning. (Politico)

International

Iran close to a closed network: Iran has been floating the idea of a national network, detached from the worldwide Internet, for the better part of a decade. Now, according to officials and outside experts, it appears that the country is moving forward with the plan rapidly in response to cyber attacks aimed at Iran's nuclear program. (Washington Post)

Where in the world are parliamentary monitoring sites? There are a number of extraordinary parliamentary monitoring websites operating around the world. These websites, from the Netherlands, France, Chile and more, should provide a strong foundation as the parliamentary openness movement progresses. (NDI - Democracy Works)

RELEVANT BILLS INTRODUCED:

H.R. 6424. End the Congressional Revolving Door Act. Introduced by Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL). Referred to the Committees on House Administration and Oversight and Government Reform.